Upload
hoangminh
View
217
Download
1
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Life in Woods Hole Village During World War II
Susan Fletcher Witzel!
Mard13 Hilton wrote in her diary that the blackout started on April 28th , 1942. The enti re shorel ine o(
Buzzards Bay was darkened to protect the convoys of
merchant ships and their military escorts as they lined
up in order at night in an anchorage marked by buoys. The shi ps d,en le(t Buzzards Bay through u,e Cape Cod Canal (0 rendezvous with other ships waiting in
Boston harbor (or the hazardous voyage across the Atlantic to Great Britain. The first convoy, BX2 1, with
27 ships, le(t on May 29th, 1942. In late May 1942 a Po rt Director's Office was established in Woods Hole
and Sandwich [0 route and dispatch convoys utilizi ng Buzzards Bay as a protected assembly area. Lt. Commander Archibald D. T umbull was Port Captain.
The Navy began to rake conLTol over a good portio n
o f the Woods Ho le waterfront. A Navy Section Base,
under conSOlJction si nce Occober 1941, was
established in Woods Hole in March 1942 with headquarters in the Fisheries buildings and
surrounding area, including the old Coast Guard Base
(u,e Coast Guard had moved to Utue Harbor in 1939
View of the Fisheries and MBL bui ldings ar the comer of West and Water Streets , caken from Great Harbor, ci rca 1938-1954. In me foreground is Ihe Fisheries small boar basin, the Fisheries Residence on the right and the Laboratory on the Icfr.. One of two beacons is near the laboratory building. Also on the left is the brick heating plant and a water lower. In the background center is the MDL Mess Hall (left) and dormitory (right}i other MBL buildings arc on the right background of the photo. Courtesy WHHC.
when it merged with d>e u ghdlOuse Service). The
base was officially commissioned by u eutenam Commander Daniel F. Larkin. A fence was built near the end of Water Street, just beyond the present MBL
Street, with a gate and a guard shack manned by Marines. U nautho rized people and civilians were not
allowed access to mat sectio n of Woods Hole during
this period. As morc military personnel arrived they took over various buildings of the Marine Biological
Laboratory, including ule mess hall , obliging the MBL
to use the Woods Hole Inn for its students and
scientists when U1CY arrived (or the summer sess ion.
Other MBL buildings utilized were the old lecture
hall , the botany building, the Homestead (where MBL
employees had been housed) and ule apartment house
on West Street. A square brick heating plant and two
long wooden buildings. one of which was a hospital,
were located where the Aquarium is now. Patrol boats were tied up at the dock. Photos raken at this period
show a jumble o f small sheds and sttucUlres
surrounding the larger Fisheries buildings and piles
of coal next to the heating plane
A pigeon 10ft fo r breeding, training and maintaining
carrier pigeons fo r Navy communicatio ns was also
located near the shore on the no rthern edge of the
Fisheries/Navy area. There were three small sheds
with wire cages o n the outside. O ne sectio n was fo r
breeding, one was for flying pigeons and the center
section was «sick bay". Supervised by Ueutcnant Donald
Comstock, a member of the American Pigeon Racing
Unio n, dle 10ft had three sailors trained as ass istants.
Peak numbers of Navy personnel during the period
reached about 500. The Port Director's Office had about 20 commissioned officers; enlisted personnel
utilized in Sandwich were provided by Section Base
Woods Ho le, a situation which occasio nally led to
conflicts o f scheduling and discipline. The families of
Naval o fficers sctving in Woods Hole were housed in
the summer season in the nearby Breakwater Hotel.
26
Mr. & Mrs. Francis D . Bartow lent the ir Penzancc
ho rne in 1942 fo r use as a clubhouse for the officers,
a very necessary o rganization in any Navy town.
Marines have generally been the guards for Navy
bases. The Marine contingent in WO<XIs Hole num~
bered twenty-eight, with one or two First Sergeants o r
a Corporal. Their barracks was the second floor of a
former MBL building just east of the Mess Hall (which was on the comer ofWesr and Water Streets) right ncar the gate they guarded. They were also
responsible for guarding the Navy dock in Great Harbor and the MBL dock off Water Street. TI,ere were two
yP boats and one PT boat at the Navy Base for ule Marines and a Captain's gig, which they used. Occa
sionally an alarm would sound in the barracks from
Naushon or No namessett and they would go over in
the gig to check up on things. They did calisthenics daily and marched through the town; the sergeant o r
corporal did a cadence but the men did not join in j
they were very disciplined and well·behaved o n duty.
Martha Hil ton wrote that on July 3, 1942, Water Street was roped off and the wardens and police began
to guard the area. Everyo ne thought that a boat had
been torpedoed off d,e coast and that uley were going to bring in casualties . This was not a rumo r and in
fact Ray D. Wells, the director of Civil Defense had been called to the Navy base at duee o'clock that afternoon and told to prepare to accommodate sUlvivors
of a merchant vessel that had been torpedoed 150 miles off the coast.2 The Red Cross and the C ivil
Defense began to organize their wo rkers and volun·
teers: civil defense wardens, auxi liary police and dle
state guard, doctors, nurses and ambulances reported
for duty. The Woods Hole Fire Station became the headquarters for the who le operation and Captain
George Ferris arranged with LJeutenant Commander
Daniel Larkin to transfer the fire equipment to a
neighboring Navy garage. The Red Cross also requested the use of the Community Hall and so the
27
View north from the roof of the Fisheries, 1944, showing the Navy pigeon loft sheds and cages. Albatross/Wcsc Street is at the right and Great Harbor on the left. Courtesy Carlotta Cross.
Sanlrday dance which was to be held that night was
canceled. The Service Club and canteen were dosed.
The whole village stayed up until onc in the morning
but it seemed LO be a fa lse rumor. There had been
thick fog all along the coast and this delayed the rescue
vessel by five hours. About noon the next day Ouly
4th), the rescue ship arrived in the harbor, esconed by the Coast Guard. A doctor was taken out to LTeat very
badly wounded men and at three o'clock ci,e ship and
its 3 1 survivors docked at the Navy Base. Five of dlC
most seriously wounded were taken off in ambulances
to a Marine hospital. The Woods Hole women volun
teers in dlC canteen began to make beef stew at four
o'clock and at six;thirty, the 26 remaining men,
exhausted and wearing an odd assortment of misfit
clodl ing arrived to eat supper. They spent the night on
cots in ci,e CommunilY Hall and were fed breakfast by
the ladies next morning. In order to give the men
clodling fo r Lheir trip home, me stores of those who
sold shoes and other wearing apparel in Falmouth
were opened by special request of Mr. Lawrence of the
Red Cross on July 5th.
British sa ilo rs, along with American sailors, Coast
Guardsmen and salvage workers were guests at Lhe
Service C lub about a week later and Woods Hole res;
idents who were born and raised in England joined
the party. TIle British sailors impressed everyone widl
their singing and dancing abili Ly, especially in the jit;
terbug.
On July 9th, ci,e steamer NAUSHON blew its horn goodbye and left to be used in the war. In August, ci,e
NEW BEDFORD was also requisitioned by ci,e War
Department. They were both ass igned to the British
government, painted gray and went overseas in a con
voy of similar vessels which was attacked by German
submarines. Since they were of very shallow draft, tor;
pedoes aimed at them apparently went underneath
their hulls and neici,er was harmed. The NEW BED
FORD was sent back to pick up survivors from the
wate r. After their arrival in England , the NAUSHON
was converted to a hospital ship (Number 49) and
bol..h were later in the thick of the action in dle inva
sion of Normandy in June 1944.
28
ASTERlAS and ANTON OOHRN in the small boat basin a[ the Woods Hole: Oceanographic Institution dock, wimer 1942. Counesy George Tirey.
In August 1942, the 36th Texas Division under Col· onel Frank A. Keating came to Camp Edwards and
Washburn Island from Aorida fo r rraining with the Engineer Amphibian Command. [n November, the
Texas unit arrived in W oods Hole to load meir land·
ing craft on ra ilroad nat cars for the return trip to
Florida. They had been doing amphibious landing practice o n Washburn Island; the landing craft came
by water (Tom Waquoit Bay and were driven up on
the beach at Juniper Point. According to Mary James
Lyons, rl,ey worked all night long in rl,e railroad yard
and the whole area was lit up by big floodlights , appar·
ently in spite of cl,e blackout. In March 1943, the
Texas Division left Camp Edwards for North Africa
and spearheaded the invas ion at Salerno in Septem
ber. The friendly Texas boys had been very popular and lived with families all over the area, there had
been marriages with local girls and mere was much
concern about meir war involvement. There were
many casualties in It .. , ly.
Two coastal defense units were constructed by the
Anny o n the higher poin ts o fNaushon fo r submarine
surveillance widl a detachment o f 6 [0 8 men each.
In Woods Hole 3 temporary wooden barracks and
several auxilial)' buildings were built o n Juniper Point
on land belonging to the Bradleys, relations of rl,e
Cranes, in 1943.
29
Guard shack at lhe Woods Hole Oceanographic Instirution, 1945. From left lO right; an unidentified Coast Guard o rflcc r, Epply (in straw har), Columbus Isel in , John Slifko, and the guard. Harry Handy. Councsy WHOt Archives.
In April 1943, six newly commissioned WAVES
(Women Accepted (or Voluntary Emergency Service)
officers were ass igned to the Po n Director's office to
work with communications. Part of a class of 500
WAVES from Smid, College and Mount Holyoke,
five of the six were (Tom MassachusetTS. At first they
lived wid, Mr. and Mrs. Alphonse Blanchard, Jr. on
Millfield Street but late r moved to the Walter O. Luscombe, Jr. house on the corner of Church Street.
Local girls went imo the services also. Barbara and
Patty Berg went into the Coast Guard Women's
Reserve (SPARS, Semper Pamus) and Charlo tte
McKenzie and Adeline Gomn enlisted in the
WAVES.
O n the opposi te com er of C hurch 5 lTCC( was ul e Rec
tory of the C hurch of the Messiah, occupied in 194 1
and 1942 by a group of hell· raising bachelors working
at the W ocxis Hole Oceanographic Institl ltion. The
minister of the C hurch of the Messiah at lhat time was
the Reverend Roben Wood Nicholson , a bachelor,
who moved into a small cOltage on Junipe r Poi nt
while (he Rectory was run as a sort of boarding
house.' The New Years parties given by Lhe fellows
during lhose years were quite notoriolls and me man
telpiece in the hOllse was lined wilh bottles the morn
ing after j in addition, an infamous "Arti llery Punch"
was served, made by Val W ortllington after an "old
family recipe". There were also parties with music
given by the residents a couple oftimes a year. "Pop" Schroeder played banjo, his son Bill played mandolin,
Maurice "Doc" Ewing was on trombone and his brother John was on darine~ Bob McCurdy, Wendell Lehmann or sometimes Val Worthingron played the piano. Two Woods Hole teenagers joined the group,
John Thompson played trumpet and his friend Marshy Cross played the drums. Marsh had bought his first drum set at age 14, taking the boat to New Bedford and paying seventy·five dollars for the drums
he found in a pawn shop. He also played at the 4 O'Clock Grill on Scranton Avenue in Falmouth, pop
ular with soldiers, sailors and Marines. Many brawls took place there between the proud 36th Division
Texas soldiers and other seIVicemenj this kept the MPs very busy. Marshy ended up leaving his drum set at the Rectory as the noise wasn't welcome at home.
After 1942, when some of the original occupants went into the Armed Services, a more sedate group of young men lived at the Rectory for the rest of the war.
George " Ruscylt Tirey came up from Texas to join John Ewing and D.H. "Jidge" Shurbet, Jr. in working as hey.yous and gofers at WHO! in 1941. His brother Ray eventually came up too. They lived at the Rectory on Church Street and were part of the original fun.loving group, becoming infamous for their practical jokes. These four boys-the Texas teenagers-had grown up in a town in the Texas Panhandle. Woods Hole was quite different for them; they wore Levis and cowboy boots instead of the khakis and moccasins of the local kids and it took them about six months to fit in and become real friends with the local guys. But eventually they were playing basketball, Ping-Pong and learning to ice skate with Norman and Elwood Eldridge and Steve Mdnnis on Nobska Pond. They went to Lowey's Drugstore and hung around with the rest of the kids and were also invited by Jim and Mary Lowey to their home to play poker. AI Vine and his wife, Joe Wonel and the Berg family were very helpful to these young visitors and occasionally let them borrow a car to go to
Falmouth on dates.
30
Woods Hole's Water Street of the early forties had the Methodist Church and a restaurant and a barbershop located where the modem Fishmonger is today at the east side of the bridge. The restaurant was called The Twin Door and run by a family from New Bedford in the summers. The batbershop was owned by AI Blan
chard; Sherman Eldridge was the barber. The other side of Water Street (after the Candle House and the MBL service buildings) had Thompson's Clothing Store, the A&P, Hilton's boatyard building, Tsiknas's grocery store (the present Food Buoy), a liquor store
owned by Robert Corcoran, Lowey's Drugstore, the Cap'n IGdd, the Rendezvous bar, then the bridge and on the other side, a taxi stand, Rowe's Drugstore, the Sea Garden Restaurant, the Frawley house and the Sniverick house on the comer. Eddie Swift's hardware store was around the comer on School Street where the kids helping out at WHOI were sometimes sent for supplies. There was just one WHO! building (the
Main bUilding, now known as Bigelow or Old Main), the Penzance Garage, still privately owned in 194! but in 1943 taken over by the Instirution (now incorpo
rated into the rear of Smith Building) and a pump house on the dock which supplied salt water to tanks in the attic and basement of Bigelow and taps through
out the building. Also in the basement was the carpenter shop run by Stanley Eldridge (Sherman was his father and Norman and Elwood his sons) and the sup
ply room where John Thompson, Marshy Cross and Paul Dingwell worked. There were four boats, the ketch ATIANTlS, the ANTON OOHRN, the ASfE.
RlAS and the schooner RELIANCE. The RELIANCE was used by the Navy Seven project for underwater explosives research.
The Texans worked in the machine shop and did carpentry, worked on BTs (bathythermographs), underwater cameras and light and sound transmission. They instructed Navy officers who showed up for
training in the workings of the BTs. Some of the local boys who worked there also were Jimmy and Frank
Cavanaugh, Carly Wing, Norman and Elwood Eldridge, Steve Mclnnis, Pete Bailey and Dick Alberts, whose father had owned the Pemance Garage before the Oceanographic took it over. There was a lot of
cooperation between the boatmen at WHO! and the inexperienced landlubber scientists and technicians
which made their work out on me water possible.
Much of the research work for the Navy at this time
was secret and security was much stricter than it is
now, when almost anyone can wander in off the street.
A barbed wire fence, gate and wooden guard shack
were installed on each end of the building here, too,
and everyone who worked here had to display a badge to gain encrance. Harry Handy was the guard. The Navy Seven or Underwater Explosives Research laboratory took over the top floor. Research was being
done on anti~fouling paints and on the fouling organ~
isms that caused the problems. Waves were studied to
predict the effect of breakers on amphibious landing operations. Temperature distribution in the surface
layers of the North Adantic was analyzed, as well as air rurhuience and convection over the ocean.
SONAR, with the accompanying development of the BT was developed. To relieve the intensity and pressure of this research, a "[alent show" with humorous
skits and monologues known as the Oceanographic Follies was presented on February 19th, 1945. Other
wise dignified scientists and researchers performed.
There were lots of jokes about the study of waves and WAVES and a typical day at WHO!, preferably Payday.
The blackout imposed upon the village had a rather strange effect, especially on scientists and researchers
who had been coming to Woods Hole before the war and were used [0 the long summer evenings and the
busy activities of a summer resort town. George Clarke
remembered that the long dark winter seemed even
longer. " . .. a great many houses could be used only
in the summer and are closed down and other busi~
31
ness activities, so that there's much less glow from arti~
flcial lights reflecting downward and giving some
illumination. When all of those were out in the winter
and then black curtains were put in all the windows,
it reduced the light even farther. Beyond that, a cylin· der of black metal was put around each of the street lights so that instead of the lights spreading out laterally for some distance as it ordinarily would, there was
nothing but a bright spot of light immediately below each street light, so that as one walked along the road at night one would go from one bright spot to the next, as if orienting from one lighthouse to another
lighthouse." Blackout shields also were placed on auto
headlights covering the top half of the lens to prevent upward directed light from being seen. Air raid wardens were supposed. to enforce the blackout in the vil·
lage. They all wore World War! flat metal army helmets and carried flashlights. Training sessions held at the Fisheries prepared them for their duties . George
Frawley was the warden for the main part of Woods
Hole; the Berg sisters patrolled the Crow Hill area (High Street), Thure Blomberg had to look after all of Ganset.4 and Jeff Allen was the warden (or Penzance.
Anyone who had to do work along the shore had to carry a photo identificaion card issued by the Coast
Guard authorizing their presence, (or the beaches were
off limits at night or in any (oggy weather during the war.
The Section Base Woods Hole was decommissioned on October I, 1943. The Marines and personnel from the base began to leave the village in May and June of
1943 and by October, the gate and fence were gone and there was only the pigeon loft. the heating plant, the lime hospital building and its twin. The Port Director's Office was then located solely in Sandwich
and continued to control convoy assembly in Massa~
chuserrs Bay when convoys began to assemble outside
Boston Harbor. They also conttoHed wartime traffic in
the Canal. By mid-1945, 61,895,000 tons of shipping
had gone through Cape Cod Canal.
32
Navy C rash Boat C39069 in Great Harbor with the rigging of l..he WHO! ketch A TIANTIS on the left. Councsy Warren E. Witzel I.
In stormy weather, in December of 1943, the first
Navy "P" boat or "crash" boat (No. C39069) arrived
in Woods Hole and was stationed at the Fisheries
dock in G reat Harbor. Irs commanding officer was
Lielltenant John Ka rf. Its crew, who had been retriev
ing practice torpedoes ncar Provincetown and the
Sandwich end of the Canal, was under t.he impression
that they were in Woods Hole village simply (0 get om
of bad wca t11cr and Lhat lhis was a temporary location
(or the boat. W hen in(onnoo rJ1 3t this lin1e fishing
village with 2 bars and a few stores was to be thcir
home for a period of lime, they were disappointed and
wondered what in the world there was [0 do (or fun .
The Section Base with its (ence and Marine guard
shack were gone bur the boats (a second one-No.
C l 8352-arrived about six monu,. later) became a
new Navy presence in Woods Hole. The C39069 was
known locally by its ca ll sign "Charl ie" and the odler
one was named "Butch". The boats were 11 0 feet long
and carried a crew of 17 each (2 officers and 15
enlisted men). They had originally been Army boats
and were equipped with small hospital faci lities. The
crash boars were attached [0 a Carrier Service Unit
(CASU 22) at Q uonset Naval Air S~1tion in Rhode
Island and one of their functions was to tow a ta rget
2000 feet behind their stern. Naval airmen and gun·
))
Some of the crew of Navy Crash Boat C39069 near the Candle House, Water Street. From left to righ[: W arren E. "Whitey" WincH, George Emery, "Uule Ben", "Chief" Lauder and J.P. Mello. Counesy Warren E. Wiuell.
ners in air planes such as F4Us (Corsa irs), F6Fs (Hell~
cats), T BFs (Grumman Avengers), TBMs (GM Avengers), PBYs (Catalinas), SBDs (Dauncless dive bombers) and SB2Cs (Helldivers) then flew over and
d ropped bombs for practice. In January of 1944, Quonset Naval Air Station took over Otis Field at Camp Edwards as an auxiliary Held; anomer air field on Mara,.s Vineyard had just been completed by cl,e
Navy. Hyannis, Nanrucket, Westerly, R.I. air fields
and Bar Harbor, Rockland and Lewiston, Maine were also subsidiary Navy fields whose squadrons utilized
these targets . Water bombs, which were about 50
pounds and which had no explosives , were dropped
by Navy bombers on cl,e Weepeckets . Vineyard
Sound was used for smoke bombs, which were small .
larger bombs (500 to 1000 pounds) were dropped over a target area souU1west of Nom<l ns land, a small
island on the south side o f Martha's Vineyard. This
was dangerous duty. The crash boats were sometimes hi t by shrapnel and had porcl,oles blown out by inac
curate bombing. However, u1e boats used u1e same
target for U1e entire length o f their stay in W oods
Hole-an interesting commentary on U1e accuracy o f
u1e bombers. T11eir second function was to pick up downed airmen who had u1e misfornme to crash dur
ing one of these exercises. SB2Cs crashed more often
u1an other planes. One of them went straight down
off Nobska [jgh~ the pilot and gunner did not sur-
vive. Years late r the wreckage of this plane was discov~
ered by a diver checking the electtical cable to Martha's Vineyard. In June 1944 the crew of the C18352 witnessed a midair collision between two planes fTom Otis Squadron 81. O ne o( the pilots para~ chuted out and was picked up immediately by the
boat. The crew and its officers received a commenda~
tion from the commanding officer at Otis. The boats also would occasionally take out crates o( homing pigeons from the loft and release them at sea for train~
ing exercises. After the Hurricane of September 14, 1944, d,e crews of the two boats helped salvage the ketch ATlANTIS which had broken loose (she had been tied up at the Fisheries dock) and had gone aground in Great Harbor near Ram Island. In October of 1944 ,he officers and crew of both vessels received commendations from Commander Gordon Rowe o( Quonset Naval Air Station for their work in rescuing two aviators (orced down in very rough
weather.
In add ition to the two Navy crash boars, two Army crash boats, essentially the same in equipment and crew, were stationed at the Fisheries/Navy dock (acili~
ties during 1944 and remained as well until d,e end oCthe war in 1945.
In April 1945, James W. Cowin, a signalman from d,e crash boat C39069, rigged a salvaged metal lifeboat with a sail and, with Boatswain 's Mate Carl O .
Homfeld, went oU[ into G reat Harbor (or a trial run. The boat capsized; Homfeld survived but Cowin drowned in the severely cold water. His body was recovered four days later by the Oceanographic schooner REUANCE. Cowin's young wife and baby daughter remained living on Gardiner Road after this
tragedy.'
Recreation (or the sa ilors, Marines and Coast Guard
men as limited in a village like Woods Hole. There were 2 bars: the Cap'n Kidd and the Rendezvous next door (bodl squeezed inln the space now occupied by
34
The Black Duck restaurant}. The Rendezvous was a rough and rumble bar and had a very shady reputa· tion. It was run by Mrs. Leonie Augusta who was always in trouble widl the ABC officials. The nail keg seats with dleir leather-covered cushions occasionally were th rown th rough dle windows! The Coast Guard
and the Marines did not always get along with one anomer in the bar and when the Coast Guard became [00 confrontational they were told to leave. Mrs. Augusta also ran the summertime Sea Garden restau~
rant on the other side o( the bridge. There were several
Frank Glynn and friend in frolltofLowcy's Drugstore, Water Street, Woods Hole; signs (or the Rendezvous are visible behind ,hem; the Mcmodisl Church can be seen in iI'S original position in me background , righthand side. Private collection.
restaurants and sandwich shopsj Grace Kenerson
Wi lZell worked in dle summer in Parker's Sandwich
Shop next to cl,e Pos, O ffice. In u,e summer of 1942 u,e sandwich shop supplied the Coast Guard Base because they did nO[ have a mess; dlere were about 35
sailors and officers. Grace recall s: "It was just like a
big happy family - u'ey paid u,eir bill once a month and if we were lucky they might give us a buck-but it wasn't very o ften." O d1er girl s who worked in Parker' s
were Ruu, Weeks Metell , Molly l.ehy Mann, Jean Stuart, Gracie Hammond, Terry Sheehan and one of the Berg
girls . It was just a summer restaurant, so after school
Grace worked in Lowey's drugstore which was where
June Spencer near the James Grill . Privare collection.
35
the Cap'n Kidd is now. Almost every night someone
from the Navy Base would call up and order 20 hot
dogs and 40 or more hamburgers to supplement their mess food. They sold lots of ice cream and hamburg. ers to fellows reruming to the base after a night on dle
town. Lowey's had a juke box and a pinball machine which was very busy. The store stayed open until one
or two in the mom ingj then Jim would give a ride home to the girls who worked for him.
Dot Rogers worked in Rowe's Drugstore and had extra
gas rations so that she could travel around to Percy
Rowe's three other drugstores . A fter she closed up at
night she had to take the cash up to his store in Falmouth and often gave rides to her friends from the
MBL embryology labs where she had worked in u,e thirties. Sran Eldridge's wife worked lhere in dle sum~
mers and so did one of u,e Berg girls in 1941 and 1942. Dot recalls the time me underwater explos ives
tested by the Oceanographic blew out the plate glass windows in Rowe's , the Twin Door and the barber~
shop. Angry owners and locals gathered in Rowe's,
which was always an active center o f goss ip and
rumors. A fellow from u,e Oceanographic walked into this hornet's nest and told the muttering folks gad,ered there that perhaps they shouldn't complain too
much as "the bomb" that blew out thcit;,. windows
would be the sort d ropped on Germany the next day! The explos ives tests caused aU sorts o f other rumors
about bomb testing during this period .
The James GriU, located where the Lceside is presently.
was a popular restaurant, especially for dle people raking
the tTains and the ferries. During the W ar, James' served N aval officers their meals during the period
before their mess was builL The Navy sent personnel
over from the Base [0 wait on the o fficers. Mary James
Lyons received special orders from Commander Clark
to get food over and above rationing limits.
The fishermen who sold their fish [0 Sam Cahoon
were asked to keep their eyes open for foreign ships or
anything unusual going on at sea, since the possibility
of German submarines being off the coast was on
everyone's mind {and indeed there were submarines
off Cape Cod}. a dler fish markets and fishermen were selling their fi sh on the black market and getting higher prices but Sam refused to do this. He paid his
men all year round whether there was work or not,
and d id not like to take in black market profi ts to
supplement their wages. Some of the fi shing boats
were commandeered by the Navy for pa lTol service,
one in patticular being the PRISCIllA V, which had jUst been built
Of course the servicemen were very popular with local
young ladies, some preferring sailors, others Marines
'. , ' , I ,;."
OT RO RYMED
1i001l( It
Grace Kenerson in front o( Lowey's Drugstore. Courtesy Grace Winel!.
36
and still others the fellows at the pigeon 10 ft! Dances
were held upstairs in the Woods Hole Community Hall on Tuesdays and Fridays and were chaperoned
by members of Ole Woods Hole Woman's Club. Dor
OdlY Soule, Chris Stuart and Dorothy Berg were the chaperones most of the time. The local Navy band
provided the music and after their drummer was trans
ferred ou~ Marshy C ross took over the drums. The band , with Marshy going along too, would also play
at Ole Camp Edwards O fficers club and the NCO club. When Marsh left to join the Marines in 1944,
his bass drum was leti: behind at the Community Hall
and was found in 1955 by custodian Joseph P. Goudreau and reclaimed by its owner. At the dances , sandwiches and coffee were served at intermiss ion.
The basement became Ole Service Club widl the Canteen run by Sid Peck. During the week it was open to
play pingpong, pool and read. After me Navy Section Base closed, taking its personnel off to odler duties,
me Navy band was gone too. A jukebox was installed downstairs and dances were held only on Fridays. The
pool playing and ping pong continued but me local girls ve ry much missed me big dances held upstairs wim me Navy band.
There were SPs (Shore Patrol) in Woods Hole but no MPs (Military Police). The Marines would run in platoon formation up the State Road in dle morning and used to walk a patrol ouough me village and 'he surrounding residential areas. O ne of their favorite routes was along High Street where Barbara, Patty and Beverly Berg lived, as wel l as other popular young ladies such as Mary Cavanaugh and Charlotte McKenzie. They also used to swim over to Ole Woods Hole Yacht Club on Great Harbor to flirt with. girls hanging around. Coast Guard seamen were known to jump off their ships at Nobska and swim into the base in Uttle Harbor.
A date was a taxi ride to Falmoudl to go to the movies
for one dollar or to go bowling. Wright's taxi stand near the bridge was kept very busy by dle servicemen.
The golf course was a favorite gathering place for
Members o( me: Navy band. Cou~y Grace: K. WindL
young folks to watch the convoys . Since the villagers
never knew when the ships were going to leave, people
would rush up to the highest point on the golf course
the next morning to see if they were gone. Some of the
young folk living on dlC Buzzards Bay shore would
row out to the ships to talk to the young Bri.tish sa il~
ors. Constance Morgan Allard who spent her SUffi#
mefS in Woods Hole as a child, used to swim with her family ofT the Ullie dock on Buzzards Bay ofT Gardiner Road. Karl lillie was blind and very sensitive to vibra
tions in the water; he was able to sense when the
screws of the convoy ships began [0 rum [0 begin their trip duough the Canal. When this happened he
would direct the children to get out of the water in
order [0 avoid a supposed danger from undenows.
During the war, mothers, sisters and those left at home waited anxiously for news from their husbands
37
and brothers and sons fighting abroad . The Boston
LTain came in at six in the even ing. the mail was
rushed up to d,e Woods Hole Post OtTice and every
one gathered impatiemly o utside. It was a time to talk
with friend s and acquaintances and hear the latest
news and gossip. When the mail had been sorted and
was ready to be picked uP. d,e poS01,en flashed the
lights and the crowd rushed inj by then it was about
seven o'clock.
Gas rationing affected everyone's ability to travel and
changed how they obtained food and supplies. which were also rationed. Miss Tinkham kept a couple of
goats to supply milk for her innumerable cats. House
wives walked or bicycled to the A&P, [0 Louis' Store
(Tsiknas's), to Higgins' Market and Sam Cahoon's in
Woods Hole. Sometimes they called Falmoud, to Ten Acres and Swifts Market, which would d,en deliver
Sailo rs with local young ladies on dt~ Woods Hole drawbridge. Private collection.
the order. The precious gas ration could then be used
for other things. Martha Allen married Norman aero
Allen in 1943 and lived in one of the Do-Re-Mi houses on the shore of the Eel Pond (the site is now
occupied by the MBl's Swope Center). Her neighbors
in the area were the Packards, the Woodcocks, dle
Jessups, Jerry Paine, Clarence C hase, the Mellors , dle
Senates, the Neals, the Veeders, the Kahlers, the
Bumpuses, the Vincents and Joe Worzel and his fam·
i1y. Marula became a Gray Lady' at Camp Edwards and saved her ration for that lTip . Her fTiend Mr. Kid
der used some of his gas ration to take a dozen of her
convalesci ng soldicrs fTom the Camp out for a ttip on
38
his cruiser "The Goose" . "They were literally scared.
Having crossed. the Adantic twice safely, they wanted
no more. By the time they came in , having had dleir
luncheon, and the sight of Nobska, dley were wondering how much it would cost to own a boat. It was very,
very good therapy."
Inevitably, friendships and love affairs widl dle service
men led to marriages for dle local girls and these
young men. A lot of the men at Camp Edwards were
killed on the first day on D-Day in Normandy and the sad calls came to newly married wives. Some girls
moved away afrer the war to dle homes of dleir new
husbands or where work was availablei some stayed in
Woods Hole and Falmouth and dlO young men from other places who came for a year or two to the linle
village became part of the local life, becoming fi shermen, working at the scientific institutions, the Steam
ship Authority and many odlOr places.
What is left of Woods Hole of dlO war? In the fifties, the former Coast Guard building (W A YES barracks) still left at the Fisheries was moved to the north a few hundred feet and became office space for dlC Fisheries.
The adjacent building was cut in two and moved to
F.R. lJllie Road and reconstructed for use as summer
conages (dley are still recognizable as wartime
construction) . The fifty- four hurricane damaged dle
larger Fisheries buildings and dlO lovely old shingled Victorian structures were demolished to make way for
modem glass and brick offices and an aquarium . The coastal defense structures on Juniper Point were auc
tioned off. Vast changes occurred in Woods Hole during the fifties. Three of the buildings east of the drawbridge on the north side (Rowe's, the Sea Garden restaurant and the Frawley house) were demolished
and the Shive rick house was moved around the comer to School Street. TIlO space created by this became a
parking lot and later most of dlC area was used for the
site of the new Redfield building constructed specifically for WHOl's biology and chemistry departments.
Shiverick became the location for the Instirution's
computer center. The Methodist Church on the oppo
site side of W ater Street was also moved in 1949 to School Street to land donated by Dr. & Mrs. Redfield
and used for some years by its congregation in the new
location; evenrually the W oods Hole Methodists
merged with the Methodists in Falmoudl and the lime
church became another well-used WHO I building. It
is quite difficult for anyone who has become a res ident of Woods Hole in recent years to imagine the village
during wartime years. But for those who do remem~
ber, it is remarbbly unchanged.
Susan Flelcher W io:dl was born in New York City and ~ up in Summit, New Jersq'. After gradu ating with a B.A. in An and An History fro m Milwaukee-Downer College in 1962, she workt:d as an an and photo edito r al Sf:\.'t: ral major publishing companies in New York. She moved to Woods Hole in 1972 and workt:d as an engin«r· ing dr.&ruman :u WHO I for many years. She is the Membt:rsh ip Chairman of the Woods Hole Historical CoIlt:Clion . Susan and her husband Nick have made thdr home in Quissett since 1977 .
Notes
1. Wesl Street is p~sc: ncly called AlbatlOss S(f~
2. The ship was theSS ALEXANDERMACOMB, a 7,129 ton Amerkan freighter. She was sunk by a ~rman submarine-launched 10rpedO. O ( the crew o( 66, 10 men were lost, and the 56 survivors were taken to Woods Hole and Hali(ax, Nova Scotia by rescue vcssc:ls.
3. Mr. Nicholson resigned as Rector in 1943 to enter the Navy. There was no minister at the Church o( the Messiah until 1944 when the ~'e~nd George: Elliott o( Faimave.n came to fill the position; he was there until 1951.
4. Jimmy Cowin's widow Carlona married Marshy C ross in 1947.
5. Gr.&y Ladies were volunt« r aides in the convalt'Sttni hospital at Camp Edwards.
[)o..Re-Mi houses and me (own dock on the Eel Pond, 1943. Photo by Nonnan Nlen. Courtesy WHHC.
39
Sources
Woods Hole Historical CoIlt:Clion, Oral History Progra m: Conversation: Manha Allen, March 1976. Conversation: Warren Bailey, October 1981. Interview: George: L Clarke, Octobt:r II, 1974. Interview: Loretta Doucme, January 23, 1981. Conversation: Bany Eager, Augusl 5, 1982. Interview: Edith Grosm, October 10, 1985. Convcrsation: Mary Jam~ Lyons, July 27, 1981. Convcrsation: Paul Morris, August 4, 1977. Convcrsalion: Manha Rodfield, January JO, 1978.
1"ht Hihon Saga, from the diaries o ( Manila Hilton, privately published. Woods Hole Historical CoIlt:Clion Archives.
Woods Hole Historical Collection , Woods Hole History file. World War lI .
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Instin.ll ion, Rcpon (or the Years 1943, 1944, 1945, Woods Hole Historical Collection Archives.
Tht: Falmouth EnU:1'P'riu, World War II fil es, Camp Edwards fil e.
Tht: Bault: of 1M Atlantic, Terry Hugh~ and John Coslello, The Dial Pn:ss/lames Wade, New Yo rk, 1977.
Dtftrun of Narraganu tl &y in World Waf ll, Walter K. Schroder. Rhode Island Publications Society. 1980.
Acknowledgements Thank ~'OU 10 all who ha\'C: helped in the writing o( this article with ~'OUr stories, memo ries, criticisms and photograph s: De::an and Constance Allard, Thun: and Avis B1ombt:rg, Donald E. ~Marshy" Cross and Carlona C ross. Wendy r-erbes. Dot Rogers. Patty Be rg Swa nson , George Tirq', Herman ~ OI.Jtch" Wessner. Warren E. and G race Wiucll. And thank ~'OU mosl o( all to Wam!n E. "Nick- W iudl, Jr. who as\:.cd me to write this article.